Alastair Cook makes huge claim that David Warner confessed to him about ball tampering before sandpapergate

Warner was named as one of the three suspects in the infamous ball tampering scandal during Australia’s 2018 Test series against South Africa, which rocked Cricket Australia.

cricketUpdated: Sep 11, 2019 08:22 IST

HT Correspondent

Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Glenn McGrath and Alastair Cook.(HT Collage/Getty Images)

Alastair Cook has reportedly made a massive claim regarding former Australia vice-captain David Warner in his upcoming autobiography. A report in The Guardian says that the former England captain has talked about an incident in the book, which took place during Ashes 2017-18 which Australia, when Warner reportedly confessed to him about tampering with the conditions of the ball in a first-class cricket match.

In an excerpt from the book, mentioned in The Guardian, Cook wrote: “David Warner, a couple of beers into his celebration, mentioned that he used substances attached to the strapping on his hand to accelerate the deterioration of the ball during a first-class match. I looked at Steve Smith who shot a glance that said: ‘Ooh, you shouldn’t have said that.”

Warner was named as one of the three suspects in the infamous ball tampering scandal during Australia’s 2018 Test series against South Africa, which rocked Cricket Australia. The left-handed batsman, along with Steve Smith were handed one year bans each, while Cameron Bancroft, who was seen using a sandpaper in the middle of pitch to rub the ball, was given a nine-month ban for his actions.

“Stuart Broad sums it up pretty well and says they got the ball to reverse swing in that Ashes. Why change what you’ve been doing? Why suddenly use sandpaper? People know what was going on. But it’s been the best thing for Australian cricket because they realised it wasn’t acceptable. The win-at-all-costs culture they created isn’t what the Australian public needed or wanted. They’d gone too far,” Cook said in an interview to The Guardian.

Meanwhile, Australia have retained the Ashes after taking an unassailable 2-1 lead over England in the four-match Test series. A magnificent Ashes triumph in Old Blighty after 18 summers is exactly what Australian cricket needed to finally exorcise the ghosts of last year’s ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, feels Glenn McGrath.

“Retaining the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001 is hugely important after the past 18 months for Australian cricket. They can now put what happened in South Africa with the ball-tampering scandal well and truly behind them,”McGRath wrote in his column for ‘www.bbc.com’.